Dorcas Amolo: Passionately Advocating for Women and Children in Sub-Saharan Africa

By Feza Kikaya

As the USAID Health Care Improvement Project's (HCI) Chief of Party for Kenya, Ms. Dorcas Amolo is devoted to improving the quality of services for vulnerable populations. For almost four years, she has played an integral role at URC, helping to advance the quality of health and social services for African women and children.

URC beginnings

Ms. Amolo began her URC tenure in 2008 as the Regional Quality Improvement (QI) Advisor during the initial stages of HCI's Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) projects. HCI was then collaborating with Save the Children in Ethiopia to improve the quality of services for these children. Due to HCI's established position as a leader in international health-related QI, Ms. Amolo's small team successfully advocated to work with USAID throughout the region. Her OVC team developed and implemented a standards-based approach to the improvement of OVC program in Tanzania, Mozambique, and Malawi. By 2010, she was developing standards for OVC services in Haiti, Swaziland, and Nigeria.

In late 2009, she conducted a situational analysis and brought various organizations together to develop standards in Kenya, her homeland. As a result of her determination, these standards were piloted in Kenya in 2010 with support from the USAID Kenya Mission and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

Although HCI has been conducting QI in Kenya for only two years, the project has had notable results. "I am actually still bubbling with joy," she said, explaining that USAID has recently committed additional funding toward integrating HIV services with those for maternal and child health, reproductive health, and TB. The funds will also support capacity building of Ministry of Health staff to ensure continued use of QI methods.

"We have really made a mark in the results that we have gotten for orphans and vulnerable children" she shares. Such improvement is evident in Kenya's Kwale district, for instance, where facilities witnessed a surge in women delivering at facilities after QI initiatives embraced Traditional Birth Attendants as QI team members.

Early career

Ms. Amolo's enthusiasm for working with women and children stems from her early childhood. Growing up in Nairobi, she dreamed of becoming a medical doctor. During her childhood, she witnessed public health employees spraying drains and maintaining grass levels to prevent mosquito breeding, but those activities ceased, sparking her interest in learning how health affects vulnerable populations. She particularly began to notice how "women were always the ones that suffered the most."

Rather than attend medical school, Ms. Amolo earned a degree in sociology from the University of Nairobi after working for the Ministry of Planning's Central Bureau of Statistics. She rekindled her passion for medicine when she worked for Maendeleo ya Wanawake, the largest women's organization in Kenya. Ms. Amolo managed that NGO's reproductive health program and worked in maternal and child health, family planning, and later HIV/AIDS.

While there, Ms. Amolo established the Girl Child Education Project, which was aimed at reducing the reproductive health-related barriers to girls' education. Through this association, she advised young women on how to navigate their social barriers to education (i.e., early marriages, female circumcision), campaigned for their needs (such as having separate toilets in schools), and provided financial support to girls whose families could no longer pay school fees. The club offered a forum where young women could encourage and support each other, which resulted in many more girls completing high school.

Ms. Amolo continued to advocate for health care for women and children at Catholic Relief Services, playing a key role in implementing the AIDSRelief Project in Kenya. She then worked as the Capacity Building Manager for the Hope for Africa Children's Initiative, working with nine countries to enable country staff to improve OVC services. At Care International, she assessed OVC service provision, which ultimately led her to URC.

During this period, she also obtained a Master's degree in Medical Sociology.

Professional motivations

Reflecting on her URC work, Ms. Amolo says that the organization's supportive environment inspires her:  "That drive to accomplish" results from "the support that you get at URC, and the appreciation," she says. "There's someone in every division that will respond to any sort of request," she adds.

Ms. Amolo also enjoys URC because of the tangible results it engenders and the liberty she has to be innovative. "It's recognition, seeing the end product, and being able to be creative [that drives me]," she states.
She notes that working for URC means that her efforts are not in vain. "How do we know that those children have actually benefitted and whatever we are providing them is actually changing their lives?" she wondered with other organizations. With URC, she has the satisfaction of knowing this question's answers.

In addition, Ms. Amolo's commitment to impact her greater community further validates her URC work: "God has been very kind to me, and I think I need to give back to the community as well," she states.